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Talk:Thomas Reed
How can we call him the 24th President? This is a deal too conjectural for my comfort. Then again, it's not like it's the only one. Turtle Fan 03:30, 20 March 2007 (UTC) I admit I am just guesstimating (says so at the top of the entry), but with an entry devoted to Fitzhugh Lee (who was a president by fanboy fiat), I'm not too worried about this. TR 16:14, 20 March 2007 (UTC) Actually, we've got more problems with #24. Roosevelt was at least 28. We need three Presidents between him and Reed, and only two elections are there. So Reed's VP has to serve the unexpired term and bow out, then the next Pres, elected in 1904, has to lose not the election but the nomination (they're all the same party) in 1908, and his successor must meet a similar fate. So the Dems have to deny three consecutive sitting presidents their nominations. A party in that kind of turmoil couldn't maintain a monopoly of power.Turtle Fan 06:53, 21 March 2007 (UTC) I am basing my count on the fact that there were 29 presidents before Blackford (of course, HT's inability to count stars on the flag casts that number into doubt). Based on previous discussions, in order for the math to work, there must be several one termers, and at least two deaths. Another possiblity--we don't know for certain if the notion of the two-term president caught on completely before TR. Obviously, there had to be some two-term presidents, or the math doesn't work. But even after Reed, it's not impossible that a couple of presidents opted for one-term and called it a day. It needn't be turmoil in the party, just a couple of old fashioned types were elected right in a row. TR 16:21, 21 March 2007 (UTC) There was a major flap over TR running in 1920 but not in 1916. That suggests to me that two terms was not unusual. I think it's more likely that the one-termers came shortly after MW2, when the Democrats were trying to reinvent themselves by purging themselves of doughfaces. Since the GOP was wrecked and the Socs still nowhere near ready to mount a serious challenge, they could afford that kind of instability then. Another thing to think of is that Flora only said "twenty-nine men" had served before Blackford. Twenty-nine men had served before Hoover OTL, and he was #31. We can't rule out the possibility of someone having non-consecutive terms, save perhaps by Occam's Razor. Turtle Fan 17:11, 21 March 2007 (UTC) Non-consecutive makes some sense. The-post MW2 series makes more sense. The language HT uses suggests that there was a series of one term Dems after WoS. So maybe it was someone special, like Mahan, that got people comfortable with the two-term president again, but only after a couple of single termers. Another possibility: The math suggests that two presidents died in office between Lincoln and Roosevelt. Maybe that second person died in the first decade of the 20th century. TR 18:08, 21 March 2007 (UTC) Reed as Speaker in ATL While it's probably a safe bet that he was a speaker, nothing in the books ever said that. TR 18:06, 14 February 2009 (UTC) :Not so safe a bet--Speakers hardly ever become Presidents. Only Polk has done it OTL, plus La Follette in 191, but he was never elected. :Whether he was Speaker or not, however, I removed the succession box because a box that has "unknown" as predecessor and "unknown" as successor and even "unknown" as dates is of dubious value. Turtle Fan 19:49, 14 February 2009 (UTC) ::He is a stubborn cuss isn't he? TR had also reverted the same thing and then 82.38.98.206 re-installed it. ML4E 21:41, 14 February 2009 (UTC) :::Why do these unregistered users think their whims trump the stated policies of the Wiki and the explicit wishes and actions of administrators? :::Of course I see now that it's sort of our fault. The article does contain a biography of Reed that has him as Speaker. It dates to the speculative free-for-all of 2006. It needs to be addressed. Turtle Fan 22:20, 14 February 2009 (UTC)